The Real Estate Agent Blog

Agents, be careful when dealing with International Real Estate Transactions. Make sure you cross all your t’s and dot all your i’s. The following article is copied from an email I received from NAMAR. NAMAR’s official website is http://www.namar.org/.

Straight from NAMAR:

We received the following Fraud Alert and wanted to share with our membership.

AGENT: I have written a contract that ended up being a “fraud”.

It started with an email from a man in China who wanted a cabin with a view and stated that he was going to move here with his family. I emailed him approximately 10 listings that fit into the criteria he stipulated. He picked one cabin and labeled it “My Choice”. Then he wanted to know a lawyer who could handle it, that his stock broker would be mailing a cashier’s check to the attorney, wanted a contract sent to him, and that it would be an all cash offer. He would be in town on June 5th. The contract was written, full price offer of $649,000, and when I emailed the Contract to him, he stated that the earnest money would be $330,000 instead of the $6,000 as I had filled in. I told him we needed a “wire transfer” and his reply was “Please, a wire would take a long time due to restrictions as it relates to foreign transfers…my broker will send you a cashier’s cheque instead. Don’t want to miss out on my choice of property.”

Several emails went back and forth and then he said that the “cheque” had already been sent according to the instructions I had emailed him. (Law Office name, address, etc.)

The law office did, in fact, receive the check, and after checking the Bank on which it was drawn, they were told that it was a fraudulent check, and that this was the 3rd time this man had tried this.